


Two for the Road

by forprussia



Series: I'm Figuring It Out, Okay? [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, Modern Boy in Thedas, Modern Character in Thedas, Modern Girl in Thedas, Mutants, X-Men AU - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:08:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9508013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forprussia/pseuds/forprussia
Summary: A new spin on the original Needs More Salt: featuring Fitz and Lara (OC of @happysnowdragon). Two young mutants accidentally fall into Thedas while running from trouble, but they certainly don't end up any safer than before.





	1. Bad Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an X-Men AU for my own fanfic, Needs More Salt.

His dad always told him that the most important thing in the world was to be careful. 

It was right at the very top of the list of ‘Very Important Things’ that had been ingrained in Fitz’ mind since before he could even speak.  It wasn’t ever a simple ‘be careful’, either.  Fitz’ father always meant more than that, because those words weren’t just meant for when you cross the street or go out to play with your friends.

And Fitz always knew what his dad meant.

What ‘be careful’ actually meant in the Neves family was; ‘watch out for lingering eyes, don’t stand out too much, and for god’s sake, don’t start a thunderstorm at the skate park on a cloudless, sunny day’.

Fitz knew, because the one time he did start a thunderstorm at the skate park (accidentally), his father wouldn’t let him go back for weeks.  It only happened that one time, though. 

Years of swallowing down his emotions, years of hack jobs telling them how to get rid of Fitz’ unnatural abilities, ended up teaching Fitz a thing or two about keeping in control of himself.  Even though ‘control’ and ‘repression’ are two very separate things when it comes down to semantics.

Fitz preferred to call it control.  He liked to pretend he was in total charge of his own body, because otherwise he’d never be able to get through the day.

It wasn’t that mutants were being straight-out murdered anymore; most humans weren’t even trying to advocate complete separation between mutants and humans anymore either.  But, just because it wasn’t legal to deny mutants their basic rights (and even this is rather debated upon), didn’t mean that it was safe for them to be ‘mutant and proud’. 

On the bad days, when his moods were acting up and the weather was following, Fitz had a lot of time on his hands to sit at home and watch TV.  He could count the number of mutant characters that were in various TV shows on one hand, and he could count the number of mutant actors in less than that.  Some reality shows went lengths to have that one mutant cast member, who was more often than not a cruel mockery of mutants everywhere, and the other members of the cast made it well known that they had ‘no problem’ with being around a mutant, so long as they were safe and kind, just like mutant actor so-and-so, who was as one dimensional as they were perfect.

In all, Fitz didn’t watch TV much.  It never helped soothe the swirl of emotions attempting to cloud his head.  He didn’t need to get angry on top of being moody, or else he would cut the power to the entire neighborhood again.  Or worse, he might set fire to some random building because of an unfortunate bolt of lightning.  Either way, it was best to avoid that kind of reaction at all costs.

By the time he was sixteen years old, Fitz fully believed he was a pro at keeping that dark part of himself, that part that cried out for mists and rain and thunder, wrapped up tightly, shoved away to the deepest crevices of his heart.  He hadn’t inadvertently ravaged a superstorm on the tri-state area in years; he hadn’t even mistakenly caused a rain shower since he was ten.

It was perfect, you know, until something had to go and fuck it all up.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t like Lara meant for all this to happen.

In fact, she’d only meant to save their lives; nothing more, nothing less.  And they _were_ alive, thank you very much.

It’s just…they were alive in a world that happened to not be their own.

And, really?  It could’ve happened to anyone.

 

* * *

 

Fitz was mad, and his words were curt and sharp for a good whole week before he finally sucked it up.

Lara took it all in with a smile and a joke, because Fitz got like that sometimes and she knew better than to take it personally (he didn’t hate her, he didn’t) so all she could do was take the attitude in stride.  She knew the cold shoulder treatment was over when he sighed one afternoon, after she’d scrounged up some of the strange coins they’d seen the people around the city use and bought them a chunk of bread, because that evening he finally countered a joke she made with one of his own.

( _“Doesn’t that man look like a bird to you?” she’d laughed, barely refraining from pointing a finger.  “Looks like you when you got mugged by your grandma’s chickens last summer.”_

_The corners of Fitz’ mouth turned down at the reminder of what he considered a very traumatic experience, but it wasn’t quite a frown.  Lara could tell, because she learned how to read his facial expressions ages ago, back when they started high school and he realized it was uncool to smile all the time._

_“He didn’t just get mugged by a chicken,” Fitz drawled, the first words he’d uttered in days that didn’t come out mumbled or angry, “Freakin’ thing fuckin’ straight-up murdered him and took over his body.”_

_Lara’s laugh rang out loud and high-pitched across the dank alley they were in, attracting the attention of the man they were currently mocking, as well as a few other Darktown natives, who were slowly getting used to the presence of the two strange children who seemed so at home in the worst area of Kirkwall._

_“It’s his – his Mc’Doppelganger,” she gasped, slapping Fitz’ arm as she continued to laugh._

_Fitz had just smiled, and suddenly they were okay again_.)

 

* * *

 

“Alright.  I’m saying it.”

Fitz cringed, sending Lara a resentful look as she stood over him with both hands on her hips.  He was keeping a look out, ready to bolt to the nearby food stand as soon as the merchant wasn’t looking, but food wasn’t at the top of Lara’s list of importance right now.  She had other things in mind.

“We need to look for other mutants.”

“Lara, can this wait ‘til after –”

“I said I’m saying it now, not later,” she retorted quickly and her accent seemed to become slightly thicker with her uncharacteristically stern tone.  Fitz bit his tongue, stomach sinking as it dawned on him that he wouldn’t be able to win this one.  “We need allies.  And by ‘allies’, I mean ‘mutants’, who can tell us where the fuck we are and why –” Lara took a deep breath as a man walked by, loudly talking about elves and their lack of work ethic.  “And I need to know why we keep getting called _elves_.”

Fitz glanced around, eyes falling on the few people who also had long ears.  That was basically where the similarities ended, except for maybe the wide eyes Fitz and Lara shared with the other so-called ‘elves’, because while Fitz wasn’t all that tall, these ‘elves’ were tiny.  Lara, being the tallest of the two, was already gaining tons of odd looks, although those looks might’ve also been aimed at the unusual tattoos that covered her face.  She had a headscarf covering her hair, because without it, she would’ve only earned herself more attention since it seemed like this place didn’t know about the art of coloring hair with unnatural colors (though, for Lara, those colors were completely natural).

Long ears seemed to be the biggest reason for their new founded ‘elf’ status, which was utterly baffling seeing as the length and pointiness of ears were pretty normal back home.  It did seem to be that more mutants had long ears than anybody else, but nobody really thought that way anymore.

“Maybe… ‘elves’ are mutants for these people?” Fitz muttered, pulling on Lara’s pant leg in an attempt to get her to sit down (and become less of a distraction to the passersby).

“I don’t think so,” Lara replied firmly, sitting down with a huff.  She wrapped both arms around her knees, leaning forward, and gave Fitz another uncharacteristically severe look.  “This is some fantasy world we landed in.  Those elves are just elves.  You’ve heard the same gossip I have, Tomás.”

Fitz grimaced at the use of his given name, and would’ve scowled at his friend for it, if she wasn’t already moving on.

“This talk of magic,” she said, lowering her voice into a whisper that had Fitz leaning over to hear better, “and of runaway mages.  It’s just like the mutant underground back home.”

“You want to find these…mages, don’t you?” Fitz whispered back, shifting in discomfort, and added in a mutter, “Probs not safe, ya know.”

Lara tossed her head, momentarily forgetting that she had her hair wrapped up, but proceeded to give Fitz an unimpressed look anyways.  “I’ve told you before, our lives will never be safe.  Mutants for life, fight for life.  We won’t get anywhere staying as we are, hiding in the shadows and pickpocketing humans.”

“My dad always –”

“You dad isn’t here, Tomás,” Lara hissed, impatience coloring her words.  “It’s just us.  Do you want to get out of here and survive?  Or would you rather wallow over our bad luck?”

Fitz scowled at her briefly before looking away.  “I was just sayin’ we gotta be careful.”

Lara’s face lightened up, taking Fitz’ words for the agreement they were, and smiled.

“Of course we’ll be careful!  Anyone so much as looks at you weird and I’ll send their ass into the harbor!”  Lara stood up smoothly, throwing her arms out and gesturing for Fitz to grab a hand.  He did, and she pulled him up with enthusiasm, throwing an arm over his shoulders as soon as he was standing. She began walking immediately, a bounce in her step that was noticeably absent in her friend’s gait.  Lara pretended not to notice.  “Oh!  Once we find them, maybe they can tell me why I keep trying to go back to Stillwell Avenue and nothing happens.  There’s bound to be a mutant with powers like mine, right?”

Fitz shrugged uncomfortably, wondering if it was truly safe to go looking for mutants.  He was unwilling to admit that he’d never actually met many other mutants outside of Lara before, though she already knew that.  Fitz had about three people in the entire world that he trusted, and they were all basically family, so it wasn’t really a surprise that he had no plans to trust some mutants he and Lara found hiding away in the underground of a foreign city.  He just hoped Lara wouldn’t trust them either.

“I think we’re in the right place,” Lara announced, looking around at the hovels and the dark alleys that were already familiar after nearly two weeks of living amongst them.  “If there’s a gutter and an underground bar, there’ll be mutants.  And this place looks like the feeding ground for seedy dives.  I believe it’s time we actually go exploring these lovely hovels.”  Lara tightened her arm around Fitz’, pulling him closer when she saw him shove fists into the pockets of his oversized coat.

“Let’s find a door with a secret knock!” Lara exclaimed, sounding excited at the prospect.  “And if that dude had a point – you remember him, right?  It was that guy with the feathers, he told us off for loitering in dark alleys – and we get ourselves jumped, we’ll make it work.  I’ll send their arms to another state, and you…you can hit ‘em with a bolt of lightning.”

“I can’t do that,” Fitz said stiffly, twitching at the casual utterance of his unnatural ability to control the weather.

“Pfft, alright, Fitzy, maybe you can just rain on them instead.  Make it look like they pissed their pants.”

“Lara.  Please.”

“Oh, ease up.  Come on, Fitz, this is an adventure!  It’ll be fun, and we’ll finally find our own kind!”

Fitz shrugged, nudging against Lara’s strong hold as he did, and aimed his eyes at the walls and alleys they passed.  Usually, Lara’s excitement was infectious, but Fitz was too nervous for that now.

His dad always told him that it was better to avoid other mutants, not go looking for them, and Fitz knew what happened when mutants started ganging together; humans get involved, and they get scared, and when humans are scared, they get violent.

Fitz didn’t want anything like that to happen, and maybe he was being a bit paranoid, because Lara had tons of mutant friends back home and she was still alive.  Hell, she was planning on going to a mutant school, which was more than Fitz could even imagine when she’d told him about it only a handful of weeks before.

Lara had invited him, too.  She said the headmaster would love him, and while Fitz seriously doubted that, he also knew that even if they did, the other students wouldn’t.  It was hard enough getting along with humans, but at least they left him alone.  He didn’t think other mutants would be all that impressed with the fact that he’d rather watch the wind blow and the clouds pass by than actually talk to the people around him.  He had learned through a rather unfortunate event that his tendency to watch shaking trees and swirling leaves with an eerie, silent intensity was usually a turn off to most people.

Lara was good with people.  Really friendly, and she could talk to just about anybody or anything and manage to make a good impression.  Just the other day she’d conned a woman out of a scarf with just a smile and a flutter of her eyelashes (there were words too, but Fitz hadn’t really been listening).

Still, she liked Fitz well enough, and they’d been friends for quite a few years now, much to Fitz’ surprise.  In typical Lara fashion, only a day after moving with her aunt and uncle into the apartment next door to Fitz’, she had waltzed over to him and all but declared them to be friends.  Fitz had stumbled off of his skateboard at the time, which he had been riding down the hall in an attempt to annoy the old man that lived a few doors down and who always had a mean word ready for Fitz and his dad whenever they passed each other by.  And Lara had just laughed at him, asked what he was doing, and whether she could join him or not.

It only took Lara a few weeks to figure out that Fitz was special, and she immediately told him that she was too, and then they’d been inseparable since, even more so than Fitz had been with his old friend Scott.  His dad hadn’t approved, like he had with Scott, but he didn’t tell Fitz to stop hanging around Lara, so Fitz supposed it was alright.  He thought having one friend like him was enough.  Just the one, though.

Which was why he was so damn nervous about finding these ‘mages-maybe-mutant’ people.  But, Lara knew more about the underground and mutants than he did, she’d been involved in the one back home (in their home of NYC, as well as her first home in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico) so she knew the ins and outs of finding people who didn’t want to be found by the wrong people.

It was hard, finding these mages, and even Lara admitted to it, though she was loath to.  Fitz didn’t know what to expect, and maybe Lara didn’t either, because she seemed pretty damn surprised when they finally found a small group of mages hidden deep inside the sewers of the city.

It was disappointing, finding out that mages weren’t in fact mutants, and it was scary too, when they found out that these mages weren’t even the good guys.

They’d expected acceptance, and help, but all they found was yet another terrible situation.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been writing this with the help of my friend @happysnowdragon, whose OC is the wonderful Lara so all rights go to her for that character.
> 
> so yeah, Happysnowdragon came up with the idea of Storm!Fitz a while ago /while high/ and this kinda just spawned from that. I'm hoping that some people like this as it's been really fun to write about, and we've been having A LOT of fun re-envisioning the NMS timeline and messing it up some! 
> 
> Feedback would be greatly appreciated, and thanks so much for reading :)


	2. A Few (Bad) Introductions

“Lara!”

There was a crack, a deafening sound, but in the mayhem, no one seemed to notice the pale eyed boy with static-ridden hands and storm-blown hair sprinting across the dark gravel path while men and women struck blows with staffs and swords all around him.

Fitz was having a hard time keeping his emotions in check this time, and he couldn’t really say he was all that surprised.  He’d expected to have an accident long before this, but he supposed it was better he do this underground than on the surface.  At least no one could really point him out in a dank sewer as easily as they could in daylight. 

For once, he didn’t actually care about any of that.  He only cared that there was a wacked out lady with bloody hands throwing fire at his best friend, who was doing her best to dodge the flames.

Fitz was only a few feet away when a ball of fire finally caught Lara right in the chest, and he stumbled over his feet, a cry tied up in his throat.

But all it did was disappear.  Lara wasn’t even singed.

There was a moment where Lara and Fitz met each other with equally disbelieving eyes, and then the mage screamed, loud and deranged.

“See?  I told you – she’s not _natural_ –”

The lady screeched as Fitz rammed into her, pushing her off balance so that she fell into the dirty ground with a satisfying thud.  Fitz could smell the familiar scent of burning hair and cloth, and the mage smoldering on the floor was evidence enough that Fitz had lost control.

Lara was on him in a minute, hands fluttering about with murmured gasps of pain as every touch of Fitz’ body sent a shock down her bones, but she didn’t relent until Fitz had calmed.

“It’s okay,” she cooed, putting her hands to his face and holding on, “That was very good, Tomás.  Look, you didn’t even burn me this time.”

Her hands were warm, but true to her words, her skin was left unblemished.  Fitz took a deep breath, bringing his hands up to Lara’s shoulders in a rush of emotion that was still left over from his accident.

The two friends stood like that for what felt like only a second, but was actually quite a bit longer than that.  They didn’t notice the fighting come to a halt around them, and they definitely didn’t realize they had an audience until one of the men still standing called out to them.

“Hey,” the man was saying loudly, voice raising to breach whatever reverie the two kids standing over a smoking mage were in, “You lovebirds want to clear out?  Don’t kids have bedtimes anymore?”

Fitz twitched, pulling away to give the rather tall newcomer a look, but Lara blocked him.  She had whirled around as soon as the man had spoken, a wide-eyed look on her face.

She could tell instantly that while this man was definitely a mage (the still glowing staff in his right hand was a dead give-away), he was not on the side of the bad guys.

There would still be a lot of fire and smoke being thrown around if that was the case.

It was a long story, but the man and his friends were the ones to start the whole fight in the first place, and Lara knew it was all to save Fitz and herself.  Lara and Fitz had been in a pretty bad place after running into the mages who had either fled once the fight began or were now littering the floor in a far worse state than before.  They hadn’t taken the appearance of Lara and Fitz well at all, to say the least.  If those newcomers hadn’t shown up, Lara wasn’t quite sure where the two of them would be right now, and she most definitely didn’t want to think about it.

So, she was more than happy to declare her gratitude to the man and his friends, especially since he was a mage.  A good one.

“Oh, thank god,” she gasped, reaching behind her to grab Fitz’ hand, and then proceeded to pull the boy over with her to properly thank the man who had saved them.  “You saved our lives!”

The man grinned, tilting his head a bit to the side in acknowledgment, and said, “Yeah.  I usually do that.  You’re more than welcome.”

“Dick,” Fitz muttered to Lara, causing her to elbow him quickly.

“What was that –”

Lara opened her mouth to speak over the man, but one of his friends beat her to it.

“You two!”

Lara swiveled her head around, just as Fitz leaned up to whisper into her ear, “It’s Birdman.”

And it was Birdman.

Lara and Fitz stared with even wider eyes as the man advanced on them angrily, probably preparing to go off on another spectacular lecture like he had when he caught them tripping people in Darktown in an attempt to make some easy money.  However, they weren’t amazed at the sight of him per se, but at the sight of the staff he was carrying.

Fitz elbowed Lara.  “Look!”

She elbowed him back immediately, and muttered, “I am looking!”

The two squabbled back in forth for a quick second (“He’s a mage?  What the fu –” to “Crud, we already met a mutant and we didn’t even know it” and then to, “Lara, mages don’t mean mutant –” and “We don’t know that, Tomás,”)

Birdman cut them off before they could start elbowing each other again, his face set into an interesting mix of befuddlement and annoyance.

“Do you two have a death wish?” he demanded, looking about ready to put his hands on his hips in the classical scolding stance.  “Did I not tell you to be careful, and to stay out dark corners?”

“This isn’t a dark corner, it’s a sewer,” Fitz said flatly, peering around Lara to give the man a belligerent stare.

“And it’s a bit brighter than Darktown, wouldn’t you say, Fitz?” Lara added, looking around the dim area with mischievous eyes.

Fitz nodded.  “Smells better, too.”

“Well, aren’t the pair of you just hilarious?” Birdman retorted, looking thoroughly unamused.  In contrast, the other man, the man Lara had been thanking, looked absolutely thrilled by the exchange of words, as did his two other friends loitering in the back.

“Anders, your little friends seem nice,” the first man said, patting Birdman, or Anders, on the back.  “Tell me more about how you first met.”

Anders scoffed, throwing the man an unamused look.  “I’ll be sure to tell you later, Hawke.”  He turned back to Lara and Fitz, leveling each kid with a stern look.  “After the two of you return home.  Safely.”

The two mutants exchanged looks, unsure of whether to let the man in on their homeless status or not.  It didn’t seem so important, however, and they actually needed the group’s help to find their way out of the sewers, so they didn’t object to Anders’ insistence that they come with him and his friends.

“So, you’re a mut –”

“Mage,” Fitz interrupted, curtly.  Lara threw him a flat look, which he simply returned, and the group they now found themselves walking with were only slightly confused.

“I am,” Anders said slowly, looking back at the two friends with furrowed brows as he led the way back to Darktown.

“As am I,” Hawke announced needlessly, walking backwards by Anders’ side so that he could continue to watch the two weird kids make faces at each other when they thought no one was looking.  “It’s all a big secret though, if you know what I mean.”  He gave them a significant look.

“I understand completely,” Lara said quickly, smile growing as excitement bubbled up inside of her.  “Mutants have to stick together, of course.”

“Mutants?”

“Christ, Lara,” Fitz cursed, throwing his head back in frustration, “I told you they weren’t mutants.  There are none here!”

“I had to check, Fitz,” Lara said, voice clipped.  “Don’t you use that tone with me.”

“Ugh,” Fitz rolled his eyes before uneasily glancing at their audience, who were watching the exchange with interest.  “She meant mages.”

“Oh, no.  Go on, then.  What’s a mutant?” the Hawke fellow asked, still grinning.

Fitz shrugged his shoulders, which Lara took to be a sign that he was done talking, so she took over.

“Mi abuela told me there were mutantes in the underground,” Lara said in an awed voice that Fitz almost snickered at.

“I think she was just making stories, though…” she added as a disappointed afterthought, and this time Fitz really did snicker.

The short man walking behind Fitz and Lara let out an amused snort, and spoke up for the first time in order to slyly add, “Sort of like how you are right now.  Say, kid, you realize you didn’t actually answer the question, right?”

Lara whipped her head around, and Fitz jerked back instinctively before remembering that her long braids were piled on top of her head, and therefore couldn’t smack him in the face.  That usually happened a lot.

“Mutantes,” Lara repeated in a flabbergasted voice, staring at the short man briefly before looking at the others.  When it became clear they weren’t biting, she decided to backpedal.  “Oh, well…I suppose they’re kind of like mages, but not.”  She threw Fitz a begrudging glance.  “They’re mythical beings.  And grand!  Better than any human on this earth!”

“Lara, your prejudice is showing,” Fitz muttered.

“Nobody likes a mumbler, Fitz,” she replied flippantly, quickly returning to her story.  “We should have known better than to think they’d be in this underground.  This place is awful.”

“I thought this place was better than Darktown?” the short man commented, a sarcastic edge to his tone.  Lara simply threw him another wide-eyed look.

“Well, that’s not exactly saying much, right?”

The man laughed, inclining his head as if to agree, and let the topic go.

There was a door coming up, and Fitz recognized it as the same door they’d used to enter this hellhole.

“Oh, thank fuck,” he practically crowed, quickening his step to bypass Hawke and Anders, gesturing for Lara to follow.  “Yo, Lara, I bet if we hurry we can still get some food.”

“You’re both going to the alienage,” Anders said, stressing his words carefully.  “To go _home_.”

Lara opened her mouth to ask what an alienage was, just as Fitz’ anger flared up.

“You keep talkin’ like we have a home,” he spat, whirling around to face Anders as they all stood outside of the sewers entrance with the classic shady backdrop of Darktown surrounding them once more.  “Check your privilege, asshole.”

Lara jumped to Fitz’ side, wrapping an arm around the smaller one’s shoulders, and forced a grin to the rest of their entourage.  “What Fitz means to say is, thank you ever so much for the help.  We’ll send you a fruit basket, yes?”

Lara pulled Fitz along, waving brightly at the befuddled group as they made their exit.

The two hurried as they heard Anders call after them, but Lara couldn’t wait to scold Fitz for being so rude.  “Fitz, he was only trying to be nice.  They saved our lives.”

“He was treating us like we were five,” Fitz said back heatedly.

“Yeah,” Lara replied, rolling her eyes, “Only because he’s like thirty.”

“Asshole,” Fitz repeated, more quietly this time.  He knew Lara had a fair point, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

The two mutants shook the experience off, though they wouldn’t be able to forget about it.  Once everything calmed down, and went back to semi-normal, Lara couldn’t help but think about how that fireball couldn’t so much as touch her, even though fire was catching all around her.  That one instance had told her that the mages here were not some kind of mutant like she’d hoped, and she was beginning to think that there might not even be mutants in this world.

That would be bad, needless to say, and she dreaded thinking about it.  Lara didn’t know how to get home if she couldn’t find another mutant to give her direction.

 _Professor X would know_ , she thought bitterly.

She wasn’t even sure if the Professor could hear her from this far away, though she kept trying to reach out anyway.  He had met her, and spoke with her at long length about her powers; that should make it easier for him to hear her, no matter how far away she was, right?

When she curled up that night, on the top step of an out-of-the-way stoop with Fitz keeping first watch of the night, Lara couldn’t stop these thoughts from plaguing her at all sides.

Unsurprisingly, when an elderly man shooed them away early the next morning, Lara didn’t feel very rested at all.

 

* * *

 

Anders cornered them a few days later, right as they were about to sideswipe a wandering thug’s coin purse with a well-placed distraction and a nice gust of wind, courtesy of Lara and Fitz respectively.

“I’ve been looking for you two!”

Anders’ sudden shout startled the two friends, immediately making them miss their mark.  Fitz was sullen, because he was reasonably sure that they just missed out on a lot of money, but Lara was actually quite pleased to see Anders.

“Anders!  How nice to see you again!” she greeted, face split into a bright smile.  Anders was huffing slightly, having apparently ran to catch up to them, and only seemed mildly taken aback by Lara’s enthusiasm.

“I’m glad to see you, too,” he replied, sounding almost hesitant.  “Lara and Fitz, correct?  I realize we haven’t been properly introduced.”

Fitz snorted, and blatantly looked in the opposite direction when Lara elbowed him for it.

“We’re not good at introductions,” Lara said apologetically, shrugging a bit.  Anders’ lips tilted up, demeanor easing out despite the unfriendly side-eye he was getting from Fitz.

“It’s no matter.  I thought we might talk some more,” he offered, before gesturing slightly behind him, in the direction of his clinic which could be seen at the end of the long street.  The mutants could always tell where they were whenever they would catch sight of the lanterns that stood over the clinic’s doorways.  They were the brightest flames in all of Darktown.  “Preferably somewhere more comfortable.  My clinic isn’t much, but it at least has a hearth, and food.”

Lara was already nodding by the time Anders said ‘comfortable’, and Fitz couldn’t deny that the promise of food wasn’t enticing.

The two followed him with very little persuasion needed.

They hadn’t actually been inside Anders’ little clinic yet, though they had taken note of the amount of visitors he attracted during all hours of the day.  Since learning his name, the two mutants were filled with the sudden realization that the miraculous healer in Darktown was actually a mage, and all of the tidbits they overheard on the streets became all the more clear (people never _ever_ said mage outright).

True to word, the clinic wasn’t all that much.  But it had clearly been tidied recently, and in comparison to the rest of Darktown, the mutants considered it to be quite nice and warm.  Neither teen realized it yet, but the spacious rooms and the general aura of the place gave off the sense of safety, and that would be a feeling the two would gradually come to associate with the clinic.

Anders didn’t broach the topic of home until there was a piece of bread in each hand, and a tin of water before both teens.

“I want to first apologize,” he began, looking each child in the eye as he spoke.  “I meant no offense in making my assumptions, I had simply thought you both looked…too healthy to be living on the streets.”

Fitz made no secret of rolling his eyes, while Lara nodded her head in understanding.  They both let Anders continue, without interruption.

“I must admit however, I am surprised you have not found your way into the alienage yet,” he said, confusion finally entering his voice.  “I realize you both must be foreign, but the elves here would surely be open to helping two of their own, especially ones so young.”

The pair exchanged glances, unsure of how to respond.  Luckily, Anders took their confusion as uncertainty and continued speaking.

“I could speak with the hahren, if you wish,” he suggested, voice laced with kindness.  “I’ve met her on more than one occasion, and I’m certain she will be more than happy to find a room for the two of you.”

During the days they spent putting their ears to the streets, especially after first hearing Anders mention the word ‘alienage’, the pair had quickly learned that it was a place where most elves lived.  While they hadn’t gone near it yet, they knew it to be located on the outskirts of Lowtown, just a few alleys away from the bazaar.  They hadn’t heard anything all that good about it (both mutant found the blatant segregation to be very unsettling, the gates that enclosed the place were especially disturbing), but they supposed if there was a chance that Anders could score them a room, it would be wise to take the opportunity.

“Alright,” Lara agreed slowly, piecing her next sentence together carefully.  “We really need a place to stay, but we don’t have much money…”

Anders waved her worries away immediately.  “You’ll both find something to do as soon as you meet Reeba.  She likes to keep the young ones busy.  Besides, I’m sure you’ll find many ways to keep your pockets full.”  He gave them a significant look, one brow cocked.  “As you clearly already have.”

Lara blushed a little at the small dig at their rather underhanded ways during the past few weeks, but Anders wasn’t trying to be mean.  He sounded amused if anything.

“And what do you get out of this?” Fitz blurted out, an obstinate look on his face.  His thick eyebrows were pulled down in an unforgiving manner, and he sat back in the little chair Anders had offered to him with his arms tightly crossed over his chest.  “You think we gonna owe you somethin’ after this?”

Lara’s hand flew out to grip Fitz’ shoulder, and she gave the boy a strained look as she hissed, “He’s just being _nice_ , Fitz.  We should be thanking him, not attacking him.”

Fitz threw an annoyed look back her way, and shrugged her hand off.  “Yeah, too nice.  People in this world always want somethin’.”

Lara shoved Fitz for the ‘world’ reference, and he teetered on his chair for a hot moment before righting himself.  Lara refused to look at him as she set to rectify his crass behavior.

“That’s Fitz, for ‘thank you very much, we sorely appreciate your unbelievable kindness’.  He just doesn’t know how to be polite,” she explained, breaking down and sending Fitz a cross look.  “Or gracious.”

Fitz shrugged, resolutely meeting Anders’ eyes from across the small desk they had congregated around.  It was messy, and full of papers and books and other little items, and Fitz desperately wanted to put more space between them and the mage, but Lara wouldn’t have followed suit and he couldn’t let her be so close to some odd guy without him next to her.

Anders met the teen’s eyes with only slightly raised eyebrows.  He was a bit amused by the boy’s frankness, if a bit approving of the blatant distrust.  Anders knew how Kirkwall could be, of course, and it was always wise to question the hand that feeds.

“I know there is little I can say to prove my good intentions,” he began, locking eyes with Fitz easily, “so let my actions be my word.  Tomorrow I will bring both of you to the alienage, and by the hour you’ll have yourselves a roof over your heads.  And then I’ll take my leave, without asking for a single thing in return.”

Lara’s eyes were begging Fitz to be nice, and he knew she desperately wanted to like Anders just because the man was a mage.  He didn’t want to, but he fell back anyway.

“Whatever.”

“Oh, thank you, Anders,” Lara gushed, reaching for her cup of water as she sent the man a grateful smile.  “It’ll be so nice to live in a house again.  I bet even Fitz will be smiling by the end of tomorrow.”

Fitz scowled, and Anders chuckled, before a small bit of Lara’s words drew his eyebrows together in curious confusion.

“I thought the Dalish all lived in caravans?” he asked, making only a small attempt to not stare blatantly at Lara’s face markings.

Lara just blinked in response, utterly stumped at what the mage was getting at.  It was Fitz who answered, surprising both Lara and Anders, though for different reasons.

“Lara left her clan a while back,” he said, lips pursed slightly.  “We don’t talk about it.”  His tone left no room for any sort of questioning on Anders’ part, as if the boy’s set jaw hadn’t been enough incentive not to pry.  So, Anders switched topics, and Lara made a mental note to ask Fitz what had just happened later on.

“I see,” the mage said, thoughtfully.  “May I at least ask how long you’ve been in Kirkwall?”

“Two weeks,” Fitz said, quickly.

“Three weeks,” Lara said at the same time.  The pair turned to each other, faces set to argue, but Anders intervened before all hope was lost.

“Two to three weeks,” he repeated a bit loudly.  “Still very new, then.  From where do you hail?”  Anders turned his eyes onto Lara, gaze turning more curious at he recalled the language the girl had briefly spoken the other day.  “Was that Antivan you were speaking the last we met?”

Lara perked up, catching the word immediately.  She had already heard of the different areas surrounding Kirkwall, as it was all a part of her early investigation into where the hell they had even landed, and she remembered seeing a ragged map with a marker clearly proclaiming a small bit of land to be ‘Antiva’.

“What do you think?” she asked coyly, leaning her elbows on the desk and skewing a few pieces of paper as she did.

“Well…” Anders looked between the pair, “From what little I heard…it certainly sounded Antivan.”

Fitz snorted, a bit surprised Anders had even played along.  All that did was bring the mage’s attention to him.

“But not you.  I can’t even begin to place your accent,” Anders admitted, frowning slightly.  “Where are –”

“We should go,” Fitz announced, standing up.  Lara leaned back, twisting around to give him a disappointed look. 

“It’s late,” he added, pointedly.

“Oh, but Fitz –”

“Lara,” he mimicked back in the same whiny tone, almost startling a laugh out of Anders.

“You can both sleep here for the night,” he said instead, following Fitz’ cue and standing up as well.  “There’s a room in the back, and a bigger cot that will fit the both of you.”

“That’s very kind, but we couldn’t –”

“Don’t worry about it,” Anders assured, voice bordering on warm as he looked into the girl’s earnest eyes.  “I’d worry less knowing the two of you are here, and not at the mercy of some thug elsewhere.”  Anders began puttering around, reaching into a carefully concealed box next to his desk and pulling out a large blanket.  Handing it over to Lara, he added, “Maker knows how bad these streets are.”

The mutants looked at each other instinctively at the casual utterance of this ‘Maker’ figure, as they still found it odd to hear aloud, but they didn’t say anything about it.  Lara took the blanket carefully, holding it close to her chest, and then Anders was leading them towards the back, through a doorway that was only covered by a hanging curtain.

The backroom wasn’t very large, but the cot was still bigger than the ones in the front rooms, and it was the first bed the pair had seen in weeks, which automatically made it the best thing they’d seen since coming to Kirkwall.

“Thank you, Anders,” Lara said sweetly, sending Fitz a pointed look when he kept quiet.

Anders turned to look at the boy too, mostly in amusement at the continuity of the kid’s sullen act.  As he expected, Fitz was frowning and looking away from both Lara and himself.

“Yeah, thanks,” the boy said in a distinctly aloof tone that had Lara sighing.

“I’m happy to help,” Anders said brightly, ignoring the scowl on Fitz’ face.  “We’ll leave early tomorrow, before I have to open this place up.  So, get some sleep you two.”

“Good night, Anders,” Lara was practically singing as she sat down on the cot, sending the mage a cheery wave as he backed out of the small room.  He inclined his head, clearly hesitant about the contrasting signals he was getting from the two weird children whom he felt oddly obligated to help.  Lara was all smiles and happy words, while the other one couldn’t seem to say a nice word if his life depended on it.

Not for the first time, Anders found himself wondering where on earth these two had come from.  He wanted to ask how they even entered the city, whose gates were rather stuck shut these days, but he knew he wasn’t likely to get an answer.

And it really wasn’t his business to start with.  He honestly just felt bad.  Anders had grown used to seeing more children running around Darktown, who were more often than not orphans, and he just figured, since he was trying his hardest to help as many people as he could, he could at least help two children find a home.  Especially when those children kept popping up in places that were surely going to get them killed if they kept it up.

He was only planning on talking with Reeba, pulling on a few of the favors she owed him and which she would feel obligated to fulfill, and once the young elves were safely housed in the alienage, he could breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

That wasn’t exactly what happened, but it’s not like Anders could predict the future or anything as fantastic as that.

 

* * *

 

A home was a home, and while it may not always be the most comfortable, Lara and Fitz found that as long as they had each other, everything would be fine.

Reeba’s house wasn’t a home, unfortunately.  But, it was better than the streets and marginally safer.

It even had a rather rustic feel to it, rather like the cabin that Fitz’ grandmother lived in.  The duo often found themselves reminiscing about that cabin during those early days in Kirkwall, like the time that the chickens got out of their coop and the one particularly nasty chicken who had it out for Fitz made it a point to chase the poor boy up a tree while leaving Lara completely alone. 

There was another time, just about two years ago, that stood out as well.  That summer they spent with Fitz’ grandmother had been after Lara became set on practicing and expanding on her powers.  It had taken a while to convince Fitz to so much as watch her demonstrate her tricks, but in the end he caved and the two of them had even more fun than they usually did running around those woods in southern Jersey.

 

* * *

 

“Fitz, please.”

Lara was wearing the biggest pair of puppy eyes that Fitz had ever had the misfortune of seeing, and while he wouldn’t say he was immune, he was definitely stronger than that.

So, he turned his back on her.

“I said no,” he said snappishly, subconsciously hunching his shoulders as Lara closed in on him, a pout quickly forming on her face.  When she leaned down to get in his face, so that he could properly see her expression, Fitz scowled and spun back around again.  “Lara, you’re frickin’ outta your mind.  That shit’s not safe.”

“But, Tomás, that’s the whole point!  Not the ‘it’s not safe’, but the ‘it’s only safe here and nowhere else’!  You know?” Lara shook off Fitz’ bemused look at her babble, and continued without hesitation.  “This is the only place I can show you this.  We’re in the woods, in the middle of nowhere in Jersey!  We’ll never get a chance like this when we go back to the city.”  Lara backed off a bit, and her change of tone caught Fitz’ attention, and as he turned to glance her way, he realized all at once that Lara wasn’t just playing around with him; she was being serious.

“I’ve been practicing a lot, Fitz.  Day and night.  I really wanna show you what I can do.”

Fitz looked around, and it was just as Lara had said.  They were the only ones around, and Fitz knew for a fact that the only people who lived near his grandma’s house were old and deaf and as it was early in the morning, there were no teenagers to worry about as was typical in the later afternoon.  The woods were perfect for Lara to show Fitz her powers, and Fitz would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested. 

Biting his lip, Fitz decided to be impulsive.  It’s not like his dad was around to care anyway.

“Okay, but I know a better place than this.  There’s more trees…”

Lara squealed, happily throwing her arms around Fitz’ shoulders and hanging off of him like an overgrown weed, strands of pink hair falling onto his face as Lara's braids bounced along with her. 

“Yes!  Fitz, I swear, you’re gonna love this!  It’s so awesome, _primo_ , you won’t believe it–”

 

* * *

 

Fitz led them to a small clearing, where the trees, while being for the most part very thin and tall, were clumped much more closely together than the last spot they’d been at.  There was also an abandoned shack that was clearly standing on its last legs, but it served as a potential hiding space and as a sound barrier, at the very least.

Lara only gave the briefest of explanations of what she was about to do, and she was so excited that her words tumbled over one another, though Fitz was far too used to this habit of hers to really be affected by it.

“Okay, so, I’m gonna open a portal over there,” she pointed to a spot somewhere in front of them, high of in the air, before moving her finger to a point much lower and to the right of where she said she would be making her first portal, “and then I’m gonna make one there, too.  Got it?”

Fitz nodded his head, somewhat unsurely.  Lara made it a point to lock eyes with him, turning her pointer finger on him now.  “And don’t you look away from me, okay?  Or else, you’ll miss everything.”

Her friend rolled his eyes, because, of course, he would be watching her.  That was the whole point of this thing.

“Ready?”

Once again, Fitz nodded.  He watched carefully as Lara made two portals, which were a translucent pink, shimmery in the sense that although Fitz could tell that there was something off about the physicality of the circle hanging above him, he couldn’t quite see through it either.  The second portal was much closer to him, as it wasn’t hanging near to the treetops, and that one was just as shiny and confusing to look at.  Fitz didn’t have much time to admire the odd circles floating around him, because suddenly, Lara was flying up high in the air, and Fitz hadn’t even blinked.

She couldn’t have been in the air for longer than a second before she was back on earth, landing on the ground with feet that only stumbled the slightest bit upon impact.  It was like she’d just gone through a loop, and there she was, standing before him with a large grin on her face as if she hadn’t practically flown over the tops of the trees.

Lara couldn’t convince Fitz to play around with his powers that summer, but she did get him to go through a portal with her on more than a couple occasions. 

It was a good summer, and even though their days were hard now, they were both able to find a bit of happiness in the memories they shared of home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lara's powers are modeled after Blink from X-men (as are her ears, face tattoos, and hair)
> 
> I plan on doing a lot more writing this weekend :D thanks for reading and for the feedback last chapter!


	3. The Alienage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been sitting on this for a while, but here it is !  
> Timeline info: This story is definitely skewing the original timeline of NMS in major ways (if Hawke being a mage wasn't indicative enough). Also, Fitz & Lara landed in Thedas just as few months after Hawke and his fam came to Kirkwall (so the expedition is coming up, eventually)

In general, Kirkwall was a pretty scary place.  

But, Lara and Fitz started off in Darktown, and before that was New York City; they had even ventured into the sewers where mages who were so far off their heads put a target on their backs at first sight.  With those experiences still fresh in their minds, it kind of made it so that the young mutants were just a little less fazed by everything else that came after.

Except for the tree.  That took them off guard; pretty far off guard, to be completely honest.

 

* * *

 

“Oh, yo,” Fitz gasped, momentarily losing the look of indifference that he’d been working so hard on since Anders promised to take them to the alienage early that morning.  They had to leave really early, of course, because Anders still had an entire clinic to run, which meant that both teens were still rather sleepy.

“Cool,” Lara breathed, wide eyes looking over the overgrown tree with curiosity.

“What’s a tree doin’ here?” Fitz asked, pointing at the giant oak that stood in the very center of the alienage, with all the buildings and such surrounding it on all sides.

The tree woke them up some, as it really was out of place in this giant city.    There was a decent amount of space between the tree and the buildings, but there were a lot of elves milling around, pressed tight against each other.  It seemed elves had to get an early start on the day as well.

The tree was a thick one, taller than any they ever remember seeing, and the base was painted a bright red, with all these white swirls going around it.  Neither teen could tell what was meant to be depicted by those swirls; they just went wild in every which direction, branching out with delicate lines that sometimes overlapped.

“Don’t point,” Anders hissed, swatting Fitz’ hand down and gesturing for them to hurry, "And don’t dawdle.  Let’s just get you to Reeba, and avoid getting jumped, alright?”

Fitz stared at his back with a sour look, letting his strides slow down a bit even when Lara narrowed her eyes at him for doing it.  “Fine.  Why do I care about a stupid, fuckin’ tree then.”

Anders sighed, but finally relented as the small group looped around the tree to get to a building that lay directly behind it.  He slowed his pace as they neared the front door, and gave Fitz a look that seemed half-baffled and half-pitying.

“The elves always have an oak at the center of their alienages.  They call it something,” he began to explain, thoughtfully, “Though, I can’t remember what.  You’ll have to ask Reeba.”

Anders lifted his hand to give the door a firm knock.  “That tree is sacred.  Elves sometimes do their prayers around it.  Surely you’ve heard of –”

An older woman opened the door, quickly and abruptly, and when she saw that it was Anders standing in front of her, her face broke out into a wide, happy smile.

“Oh, Anders.  What a surprise,” she exclaimed, immediately placing a hand on his arm and patting it.  “I must thank you again for those herbal remedies.  We were on such short stock…I do not know what we would do without you!”

Anders actually looked slightly embarrassed at her words, and the warmth behind them, which made the two mutants smirk at each other.  Beyond the old lady, a group of elves were congregated in what must have been the living room.  Some of them were looking at Anders with the same amount of gratitude as the old lady, but some of the others looked a bit distasteful and refrained from even looking at Anders.  One elf in particular didn’t even look up from the bowl of food in front of them.

There was no time to wonder about this sort of reaction, because then Anders was introducing both teens to the old lady, who was of course the hahren, Reeba.  Her gaze was kind, but cautious as she greeted the two unknown children, nonetheless she ushered the trio in.  They hovered just inside the doorway, Anders was clearly eager to leave, but Reeba was speaking again as soon as the door was closed.

“Anders spoke of you the last we met,” Reeba informed the two teens, sobering up slightly from her happiness at seeing the healer.  “He says you are both new to this city, and have not had much luck settling in?”

There was a pause, and she (and all the others listening in) probably wanted to hear the duo’s whole backstory.

“Yeah, we’ve been in Darktown for the past…couple weeks, I guess,” Lara said brightly, while Fitz tried not to shift around too much.  Fitz accidentally made eye contact with one of the elves loitering behind Reeba, which earned him a scowl for some reason even though he looked away quickly.  Lara was finishing in a rather sorrowful tone, “We don’t really know where to go.  We haven’t anybody else to turn to.”

Reeba frowned, worrying her lip, and glanced back into the room behind her.  The elf that had glared at Fitz turned quickly and left up the stairs that sat to their left, forcing the teen to step back into the doorframe lest he got shoulder-checked into it.  Anders shifted as well, and then spoke up.

“They are both very good children, I promise you” he said, which made Lara smile earnestly in kind while Fitz tried not to scowl, “They’re hard-working and I’m certain they’ll be able to provide you with some compensation for a place to sleep.  They just need some time to get back on their feet.”  Anders was giving Reeba that patented earnest stare of his that the two mutants were only slightly familiar with; it was the same expression he used when he wanted to coax nervous or scared patients into trusting him.  It must have worked, because she broke right after he said his piece.

“I suppose we have space enough for you here,” she said, still a bit hesitantly.  “It won’t be much, we’re cramped as it is, but there will always be food for you to eat and enough room to sleep, da’len.”

She smiled tentatively, and Fitz wondered why she even agreed to this.  Despite her words, it didn’t seem like she really wanted them there, though that could be explained as them being complete strangers.  Lara was simply glad that it all worked out, setting her mind on making Reeba not regret her decision.

“Perfect,” Anders said brightly, going to slap Fitz on the shoulder and stopping abruptly when the teen flinched.  “I’m sure I’ll see you around sooner or later, alright then, Lara? Fitz?”  

He turned to go, one hand on the doorknob, while the teens bid their goodbyes.

“Of course! See you, Anders!”

“Yeah.  Bye.”

Anders left, and Reeba showed the mutants around the house a little bit before shoving them off onto one of the elves that had been eavesdropping onto their conversation.  It wasn’t the one who had glared at Fitz, but one of the more mellow-looking types.

“Name’s Garrus,” he said, holding out a hand and then grabbing onto Lara’s elbow when she reciprocated.  She fumbled a bit before copying him, but he didn’t say anything about it.  “It true you never been in an alienage before?”

Reeba hadn’t asked that outright, probably out of politeness, but they got the sense that this elf didn’t care much for being polite.  It made them feel a bit more comfortable, if that makes any sense at all.

“Nope,” FItz replied, grinning when the elf’s eyes went wide.  “And, hey, I got a question ‘bout this place.  Why you guys have a big-ass tree out there?”  He jerked his head to the side, gesturing behind them, and Garrus’ eyes went even wider.

“You’ve never even heard of a vhenadahl?  Shit, where’re you two from?”

Fitz shrugged while Lara replied for him.

“We’re pretty far from home, at the moment,” she smiled, “Could you show us around?”

“Sure.  Not like I’m doin’ much anyway,” Garrus suddenly grinned, shooting each teen a mischievous look.  “You’re gonna have to be careful, though.  We don’t usually get new guys, you know?  But, if you listen to me, I’ll show you how to survive this place without missin’ a tooth and an arm.”

“That a phrase of yours?” Lara asked, grinning back just as brightly.

Garrus snickered.  “I’ll tell you later.  Come on.”

 

* * *

 

Funnily enough, it’s their new friend who introduced them to the notorious leader of Kirkwall’s local smuggling ring.  Garrus told them that not even a few months ago, the Coterie were in charge of all things nefarious and underground, but then a small group of smugglers, completely unrelated to the Coterie, began to grow not only in size but in popularity.  Athenril had a lot to do with that, but apparently Hawke did, too.

“That guy?” Fitz had scoffed at the time, looking at Garrus dubiously while the elf nodded his head earnestly.  

“He scares people right off,” Garrus explained, eyes darting around the alienage center like Hawke might actually jump down from the vhenadahl at any moment.  “Him and those friends of his.  They get around, you know?”

Fitz and Lara were doubtful at first, but after some thought, the impression seemed pretty spot on.  After all, they did witness those guys in action not too long ago, and some might’ve viewed that as scary.  Many, in fact.

Hawke seemed to be a name that kept popping up everywhere, especially now that they met one of them (and there were supposed to be _at least_ two more of them).  Lara felt it safe to assume that the one who saved them in the sewers was a leader of sorts; she could tell by the way he held himself, and the way the others had looked at him.  After hearing more about his exploits with the smugglers, Lara was convinced of it.  Just as she was a little put off by the idea of working with smugglers.  It sounded dangerous, like dirty work, and she didn’t necessarily enjoy running around in the dark playing cloaks and daggers with people who might hack her and FItz to pieces at a whim.  Or, at least, that was _her_ impression of the job.

Fitz had just shrugged and tilted his head, thinking on it after Garrus had first suggested the meeting with Athenril.  He looked at Lara with a raised brow, and she could tell he didn’t think it was a big deal.

“It’s just money, right?” he said with another shrug, the left corner of his mouth ticking up a bit.  “And we’re good with this shit.  Should be easy.”

Lara pursed her lips, rolling her eyes once before relenting.  “Yeah, because I always wanted to be a career criminal.”

“Not gonna be here long enough to make a career of it,” Fitz assured her, absently patting her on the arm as he directed a grin at their new friend.  “Yeah, so, where she at?”

Garrus grinned wide, and in only a few days, the two teens were in.  

And it _was_ easy.  Sometimes.

 

* * *

 

“I don’t like you.”

The statement might have been accompanied by a rather vicious punch to Fitz’ gut if Lara hadn’t appeared at just the right moment.  As it was, his bag had already been torn from his side and rifled through, not that they found anything worth having (all of that had been taken _ages_ ago), and now it was apparently his turn to get pommeled.   

There were only two of them; both lean guys, who didn’t really look like much in Fitz’ opinion, but they knew their holds and punches, so Fitz’ opinion wasn’t actually valid in this situation.  The leader, the one who was getting vocal about his dislike of Fitz, was the same elf who had given him a nasty look on the day Fitz and Lara had first moved into the alienage.  A week had gone by since then, and the guy had kept his distance, but he must have really been feeling the hate, because here Fitz was.  Getting mugged right outside of Reeba’s building, while everybody pretended not to notice.

Only, luckily, Lara was there to save the day.

Fitz suspected she might have used some of her powers to blink over to them, but nobody was calling witchcraft on her; the guys who had cornered Fitz looked mildly surprised if anything.

“Let him go,” Lara ordered, jaw tight as she looked between the guy holding her friend and the one who looked ready to start throwing punches.  “And step away.”

“What are you gonna do?”  The elf who almost punched Fitz was now looking at Lara, sizing her up (and hopefully realizing the he couldn’t take her on), but Fitz didn’t have much hope in the guy’s mental capabilities.

Lara smiled.  “Well, I won’t have to do anything, if you let my friend go.  And then we’ll all be much happier.  Trust me.”

“You should listen to her,” Fitz addressed the guy holding his arms behind his back, who at least seemed to be thinking about it.  The other guy just looked angry.

Fitz had already come to terms with his potential mugging, had already shut down his emotions about the whole thing too, lest he wanted to _really_ start something.

“I won’t take orders from outsiders,” the other guy was saying, glaring at the two mutants with more heat than either thought was warranted.  They didn’t even know the guy’s name.

“What the hell is your problem?” Fitz asked, tugging a bit on his arms, just to see if the other elf was persuaded.  No such luck.  He would have liked to stretch too, as the muscles in his shoulders really ached.  The guy holding him wasn’t budging, keeping Fitz’ arms at an awkward angle behind his back, but Fitz could tell that the guy’s heart wasn’t really in it.  He just had to loosen his hold the slightest bit and then Fitz could break free. “Like, you don’t like me?  So, maybe it’s a personal problem.  On your part, I mean.  ‘Cuz, like, _I_ don’t got a problem right now.”

“It’s about to be your problem,” the elf sneered, attempting to lean past Lara to get in Fitz’ face.  Lara pushed the guy back, and as luck would have it, the large guy holding Fitz’ arms behind his back loosened his hold at the very same time; just enough for Fitz to make his move.

He put all his weight forward, and _dropped_ , surprising his captor enough that the man let go.  Then, Fitz was stumbling, smacking into Lara as he fell.  Her hands came up quickly to catch him, but their new friend had obviously had it as he decided to jump the _both_ of them.  A single punch caught Fitz on the side of his head before Lara took over, letting him fall in favor of turning her attention to the guy who was now throwing sloppy punches.

It was messy, but Lara managed to get in a few good hits to the guy’s face before the guy’s friend, the one who had accidentally let go of Fitz, decided to join in.  Fitz saw the guy coming up behind Lara and in a flash he sent a leg out, just close enough to send the guy sprawling on the cement alongside him.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” Lara snarled, hand fisted in leader’s tunic, glancing down briefly to look at the elf Fitz had tripped, who was struggling to get up after that rather hard fall.  Fitz was pleased to see blood running down the elf’s chin, but mostly he was relieved that he hadn’t accidentally electrocuted the guy.

The elf dangling in Lara’s grasp was holding onto his nose, which was gushing with blood, and he looked just about ready to lose it.

“Oh.  Are you fighting?”

The four teens nearly jumped at the new voice, and they turned their eyes simultaneously onto the small woman who now stood on the outskirts of their little circle.  She didn’t look like she wanted to start trouble though; her face was set into an expression of polite curiosity, and perhaps there was an edge of eagerness there too.

She turned her eyes on the elf holding his nose first, when none of them replied to her slightly silly question, and then put her hands on her hips.

“You’re Reeba’s nephew, aren’t you?  Varrion, yes?”

The boy nodded as Lara reluctantly let go of him, just as Fitz finally took the time to pick himself up from the ground.  The kid gave Fitz a nasty look, to which Fitz responded with an unimpressed one of his own.  Lara made it a point to take a step closer to Fitz.

“Who names a kid ‘Varrion’?” he whispered to her, side-eyeing the elf with blank eyes, knowing it would annoy the guy.  “Sounds like a fucking pokémon.”

“What’d you say?” the elf spat, and he even took half a step towards them before faltering at the way Lara held herself.  She was ready to hit him again if necessary.

“Pretty cheap of you to gang up on me like that,” Fitz said as if he were making a mundane statement, turning his eyes away in boredom.  Varrion continued to glare, but was suspiciously tame now that a new elf was on the scene.  Or, maybe he just didn’t want to get punched by Lara again.  “Scared of a little one-v-one?”

“I’ll catch you later,” Varrion said, ignoring Fitz’ rhetorical question, and he definitely didn’t mean it in the ‘see you around, mate’ type of way.  Fitz wasn’t too worried about it.

“Low ass motherfucker,” Fitz called back, wanting the guy to hear the disdain in his voice.

He watched the two leave, both boys throwing them nasty looks over their shoulders, but Fitz wasn’t all that intimidated by that sort of thing, so he just wiggled his fingers back at them.  Lara elbowed him in the stomach.

“You don’t have to mock them,” she said in annoyance.  “Can’t you take this seriously?”

“Why?” Fitz asked, rolling his eyes.  “They’re just some punks.  Wanna show the new guy his place, and shit.”

“I’d rather not see you -”

“You’re new.”

Fitz and Lara turned simultaneously, having nearly forgotten about the newcomer, and as they looked towards her now, the mutants were surprised to see the new elf standing very close to them, peering between the two with wide eyes that were just about on level with Fitz’ gaze.  Her hair was tangled, some of the strands that had once been tightly braided were a bit ragged looking and poking out, but her face was mostly clean except for a few patches of dirt that had probably rubbed off from her fingers.

Fitz took a step back, suddenly feeling embarrassed in front of the woman who had nearly witnessed him getting his ass kicked.  In contrast, Lara straightened her back, and smiled.

“Yeah, we are!  We’ve been here for a week,” she said brightly before delving into quick introductions.  “I’m Lara, and this is Fitz.”

“I’m Merrill.”

She didn’t stick a hand out for a shake, but rather, she reached out to grab both of Lara’s hands in hers and then squeezed.  She wore a warm expression, and seemed genuinely kind, which was a relief, because Lara had just about enough of dealing with mean strangers for one day.  Fitz almost backed away when the woman turned to him, but he bore the weird handshake with only minimal amounts of awkwardness.  

“I’m new too, but not as new as you two, _obviously_.  I’ve been told that getting mugged is an initiation of sorts around here.  Would you like a cup of tea to celebrate your good fortune?”  The woman took the time to look them over, eyes landing on Lara’s bloodied knuckles and Fitz’ bruises.

Lara could only stare, while Fitz squinted a little at the woman’s words.  Neither mutant could tell if she was joking or not, but when she gestured for them to walk with her, they couldn’t help but follow.  

“We can also tape up your hands, and I believe I have something cold enough to quell the swelling on that,” she said, nodding towards the knot slowly emerging on Fitz’ temple.  Still, Merrill seemed as cheerful as could be about inviting two scuffed up kids into her home.   “Just follow me!”

Merrill talked the entire way to her house (it was just two buildings down) and she talked as she bandaged Lara’s hands and handed Fitz something unidentifiable, and ice cold, wrapped in a towel.  She continued talking as she made the promised tea, and then she talked some more as they sat there drinking it.

Fitz liked the tea, though it was just slightly too bitter with no sugar to add to it (Lara could barely drink it, she needed more sugar than anything), and he liked Merrill too, almost immediately.  Not that he would admit to it.  Lara readily admitted to it, and to Merrill’s face no less, to which the elven lady simply laughed and smiled.

Merrill was nice, and from then on, she seemed to make it a point to wave and say ‘hello’ to the teens whenever they would pass each other on the streets, and Fitz even got a chance to return the kindness she offered him when he found her lost in Lowtown one day.  She was trying to get to Hightown, and was about to set off in the totally opposite direction, when Fitz found her and showed her the right way.

Of course, neither she nor Lara were there the next couple times that Varrion had Fitz in a corner, but that didn’t matter.  Fitz got himself out of both scrapes, and after that, nobody tried to come for him again and everything settled into a normal pattern, though Lara hated letting him handle stuff like that on his own.  Fitz didn’t care about possibly getting hurt, but there was no talking to him when he’s made up his mind to do something alone.  Damned impossible.

Lara and Fitz weren’t quite accepted into the alienage, this _weird_ elven community, but they were as accepted as any outsider could hope for.  As long as people stopped trying to beat them up, they honestly didn’t care if they fit in or not.

They didn’t expect to find home in an alienage, they didn’t even really want to.  But, they had to make do somehow and if that meant settling down and making something out of what life threw at them, then it was better they had some friendly faces surrounding them in the meantime.

 

* * *

 

A few weeks later, they had an actual routine.  Or, well, a better routine than waking up on a doorstep and immediately looking for people to pickpocket.  They still did that occasionally, but Athenril made it so that they didn’t actually _have_ to.  You know, when it wasn’t a part of the job.

It just so happened, the job Fitz was running at the moment did in fact entail pickpocketing to a certain degree, and hence, running for dear life.

Fitz veered right, nearly careening into the end part of the highly-decorated stand that was in the way (and angering the shop owner, despite not having done anything).  There was an alley just beyond the merchant’s table, and if Fitz could just reach it…

There was a smash, and a resulting yell (multiple yells, really), and Fitz knew he had it.

(The sudden, unexpected, gust of wind that blew the merchant’s expansive drapery all over the place, which consequently resulted in the collision of bodies that happened as soon as Fitz made it past the stand, had absolutely nothing to do with Fitz.  Not at all.)

He made it to the alleyway, ducking into it with all the ease in the world and soon he was racing away from all the loud noises of Hightown’s shopping quarter.  And away from his less-than-friendly pursuers.  With his dark hair that fell in his face and drab canvas coat that blended in well with his surroundings, Fitz wasn’t all that worried about being recognized.

His messenger bag flopped up and down at his side, uncomfortably banging into his thigh with every hurried step he took, but it was secured safely, so he didn’t worry about dropping anything important, of which he had many.

Well, it wasn’t exactly many.  There was a locked ornate box, and a pretty wide array of documents that were bound hastily together by a strip of cord.  Fitz had absolutely no idea what kind of things either held, and he didn’t really care, which was probably a good thing.  Athenril wasn’t paying him to snoop in her affairs.

At the end of the long alley, he hooked a left and then he was nearing the entrance to Lowtown, where he was hoping he could completely blend in, so that he could finally stop running.  It was a good thing Fitz was aces at telling directions and committing the way around town to memory, it was like his body always knew where to go naturally rather than by any kind of observation.  It made escaping a hell of a lot more easy, that’s for sure.

Running up the darkened street that eventually opened up to Lowtown’s bazaar, and gaining only a few looks from the people walking along, Fitz merged seamlessly into the packed square, quickly becoming just another face in the crowd.

When he dumped his bag in front of Athenril later that day, all he got was a small handful of coins and a curt nod, but it was enough for rent and some food, so he didn’t fight it.

He thought there might come a day when that wasn’t enough, but it was too early for all that now.

He and Lara just had to survive.  There wasn’t time for playing with fire when it came to money, and Fitz really liked sleeping in a house again, so he wasn’t going to start a fight.

It’s not like they were planning on being in this flea-ridden town forever.

 

* * *

 

Lara wasn’t bragging, but she knew it’d only take one hit, and the guy sneering down at her would drop like a fly.

But, she wasn’t going to do that.  Obviously.

“We don’t take your kind,” the man was scoffing, eyes disdainful as he dragged them across the markings on her face to the long points of her ears.  “The city guard isn’t for savages.”

Lara wanted to scream, but that would only make the idiot think his narrow-minded world view was right, and she’d rather eat her left boot than let that happen.  It was only a simple question (‘how does one become a part of the city guard?’) and the guy had a go at her for it.  Lara didn’t want to work for a smuggling ring for any longer than necessary, and both Anders and Merrill claimed to have a friend in the guard, so Lara just figured that the job couldn’t be that bad.  But, apparently her face markings and ears were the deciding factor in her job search.  How typical.

Still, she smiled wide and thanked the nasty guard for his time before walking away with a definite skip in her step, just for him.  She didn’t want him to know that his words had gotten to her.

Inside, she wasn’t so cheerful, but that didn’t really matter.  She’d get over it soon enough.  Maybe she could make a pit stop at Anders’ place before going home; he always had a funny story ready for her if she asked for one, and sometimes he’d go on and on about magic (again, only if she got him to the topic), which was just great.

She wasn’t ready to ask him about world-travelling magic quite yet, but she was really beginning to believe he might be trustworthy.  Of course, she wasn’t going to tell Fitz that; he’d throw a fit and tell her she was being naïve again, which she wasn’t, and then he’d run off in a strop and not return until a day had passed and, by then, all her nails would be nearly bitten off from worry.

He said she trusted too much, but he trusted no one, sometimes she thought he might not even trust her, and Lara just couldn’t be like that.  She had always learned the most when she was surrounded by other people, especially people like her.  Her family had all been regular humans, but they were all supportive and learned on mutant discourse, so it wasn’t like she ever had to hide.

But, that wasn’t to say home wasn’t dangerous.  It was very dangerous.  Her aunt and uncle had decided to leave Mexico when the rumors started rising, of anti-mutant gangs and beatings that left more than just a hospital visit, and it was New York that held promise.  It was only recently that her uncle had heard about a school just for mutants, managed by one of the most powerful mutants of the age.  Her uncle let it slip one night over dinner, and  Lara had latched onto it like a beacon, because it just sounded so, _so_ good.  Lara didn’t even think she’d mind having to leave yet another home in order to move upstate.

She hadn’t complained when her family asked her to hold off on joining Professor X’s school for gifted youngsters.  They wanted to be sure that it was reputable, though Lara did kind of have her heart set on joining soon.  Lara had family members left and right telling her that moving away for school would be pretty lonely; a lot like when they first moved to the US.  Except, this time, she wouldn’t have any family next door.

America had been new and different, but their family had ties throughout Brooklyn so it wasn’t like they were _completely_ alone in a new city or anything.  Lara wouldn’t know anybody at this new mutant school.

Lara thought her aunt and uncle just hoped she’d stay in the city, it was easy to see that they were nervous to have her that far away from them.  They thought she could make a nice life for herself in New York City, in a school that had a more traditional reputation, and maybe they were right.  Afterall, it was better than a lot of cities, in some regards.

But, then again, New York wasn’t _great_.  She didn’t want to say it was worse than home…but it had its own problems.  Her first few years were a struggle, that’s for sure.

There were streets she couldn’t go down, and people at school she had to avoid.  And, she always felt it when the teachers would keep a careful eye on her in every single class.  It hurt, just like it did when they would ignore the names she got called, or the amount of times someone wrote ‘freak’ on her locker.

Lara couldn’t hide the fact that she was a mutant like Fitz could.  It was written, quite literally, on her face and even in her hair.  The dark pink markings above her eyebrows and the complementing ones on her cheeks were always the first thing people looked at when they saw her, and then it was the pink in her hair, and then the unnaturally bright green of her eyes.  People knew without having to see her use her powers that she was a mutant, it was something they would always just assume about her.  All she could do was embrace it.

Over the years, Lara managed find friends in the streets, in bars that looked closed and in abandoned apartment buildings that the city had been ignoring since the 70’s. They were  friends who were like her.  They weren’t the best, but they were proud and brave, and they were ready to fight for their rights with every breath, and the gravity of this dedication was very impressionable to a young teen.  It’s part of what made her so proud to be who she was.  And, honestly, some silly human school didn’t matter in the long run, as she told herself every day.

When she first moved to New York, Lara figured that she probably would’ve taken the first bus out of the city if it hadn’t been for Fitz.  He was the first person she met in New York, and they had spent almost every waking minute together that first summer.  They were both eleven, a little awkward, and they were both mutants.  It made sense that they would just click perfectly.  Between Fitz, and the other friends she made along the way, Lara realized that by the time she was sixteen, she really liked living in that city.

It was just that, she wanted to do more than just settle down and be content.  Her life centered around being a mutant, it was a part of her that she loved and she wanted everyone to know just how great mutants could be.  She wanted her community  to be accepted, unequivocally, and she was willing to work for it.

So, Lara wanted to go to that special school.  She wanted to learn how to control her powers properly, in ways she knew she’d never figure out on her own, and _more_.  She just didn’t want to go without Fitz.

A week before Lara and Fitz were supposed to start junior year (and only a few days since they got back from Fitz’ grandmother’s house), a teacher from the school came to her apartment.  It was a tall man, who wore dark sunglasses the whole time, and he was nice.  He ate the dinner that her aunt prepared, and told Lara all about life at Professor Xavier’s school; he even had a pamphlet.  Even her previously skeptical family seemed impressed.

And, honestly, it sounded so nice, Lara felt like she could cry.

But, still, at the end of the night, she didn’t have an answer for the tall man, whose name might have been Somers or something like that.  Instead, Lara told him she needed time.  Time to think, and time to decide the best way to tell Fitz.

She wanted him to go with her so badly, but she didn’t think anyone could ever convince him, let alone her.  Lara knew that Fitz’ dad would never go for it, and if he said no, Fitz wouldn’t even fight it.  No even if he _wanted_ to go.

Fitz believed every word his dad said, and it drove Lara mad.  Mr. Neves was a firm believer that life would never be safe for mutants, that humans would never accept them, and that it was better to hide their powers and force them to be quiet until they didn’t exist anymore.  Lara was pretty sure that there was once a time that Fitz believed it, too; believed that if he tried hard enough, his powers would go away forever, and it made her sad.

When she told him she was leaving, Fitz had been shocked (maybe, it was hard to tell with him), but he hadn’t reacted badly.  She was hopeful even, when she asked if he’d think about going with her, because he didn’t say an outright ‘no’ like she expected.  He had just nodded, and looked away.

They didn’t talk about it after that.  Lara was close to bringing it up again, she was close to leaving, but then they left together, and it wasn’t to any special school in upstate New York.

It was a mess.

Lara had dragged Fitz to a parade in lower Manhattan one day.  They’d skipped school just to do it, left right before fourth period math.  It was only a little parade, set in the late afternoon, and it had a small turnout too, but it was for mutants and it was the first time Lara had been to one of any kind.

(The ones in Mexico had always been in other cities.  There’d been one in Mexico City about a year before she moved to the US but she didn’t have time to go, and back then, mutant rights hadn’t been so important, so _pressing_ , as weird as it is to think.)

Fitz had complained once, and then shut up.  Lara suspected his lack of fight was just because he was glad to be out of school.  However indifferent he was, Fitz stood next to her with his hood drawn low, covering half of his face with a fringe of fake fur and army green canvas fabric, but he was watching and, though he was tense, Lara knew he was just as interested as she was.  She swore she saw him smile on more than one occasion.

And it had been fun, really fun, until the anti’s showed up.  Then, it was mayhem, and they were panicked, and people were screaming and there was so much smoke –

That’s when Lara tried to blink them home.

She didn’t know what happened, but it was a familiar sensation.  There was a time, long ago, when her powers were doing weird things and no one understood why they were acting up.  And they never found out why either.  The point is that her powers sent her into a five-month coma when she was eight years old and she couldn’t remember a single thing about those months except that she hadn’t been asleep, like how they say coma patients are.  She wasn’t there, even though her body was.

It was a hazy memory, which she and her family thought was best left forgotten, but that day in Manhattan brought back a wave of nostalgic energy that sent her stomach rolling.

This time, it wasn’t just her mind that was sent elsewhere.

It was her _and_ Fitz, in their entirety, and it wasn’t home that they went to.

It was some place called Thedas, though they didn’t learn that until a few days of wide eyes and  tip-toeing went by.

After that it was easy to figure out that they weren’t in their world anymore, but that wasn’t exactly a reassurance to either of them.  It was far from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I graduate in less than 2 weeks (!!), so please expect more chapters after that, and the same goes for the Extras (I have a chapter on the gang's reactions to Fitz leaving Kirkwall to show you guys soon).
> 
> please hit me up on [tumblr](http://runningforprussia.tumblr.com/ask) or here if you have any questions or requests/prompts you'd like to read :)


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